NATIONAL MUSEUMS: NEGOTIATING HISTORIES
12-14 JULY, 1999
A three day conference convened jointly by the National Museum of
Australia, Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, Australian National
University, and the Australian Key Centre for Media and Cultural Policy,
Griffith University.
Further information regarding registration and accommodation are available
from
Arwen Blackwood Ximenes
Assistant Administrator
The Centre for Cross-Cultural Research
The Australian National University
Telephone: +61 2 6249 2434 Facsimile: +61 2 6249 2438
Web site: www.anu.edu.au/culture
CONFERENCE TRAVEL
You can obtain discounted airline tickets with Ansett Australia by calling
131 413 and
quoting the master file number for the conference: MC09587. The rate
negotiated is 35% discount off the standard economy airfare, however it is
subject to availability so book as early as possible.
PROSPECTUS
The National Museums: Negotiating Histories conference will consider how
competing understandings of national histories are presented and negotiated
through exhibitions and other public programs in museums, although the
conference papers and discussion will range beyond issues of display to
consider topics such as acquisition, custodianship and repatriation of
cultural property. The conference will broadly explore how museums present
indigenous and settler/migrant histories and cultures and environmental
histories in postcolonial societies, especially South Africa, Australia,
New Zealand and Canada.
Although the conference is organised around these three themes, it is
intended that speakers will focus not only on the particular questions of
representation and display of these themes but also the inter-relationships
between them. This approach raises questions about how national museums
can accommodate different perspectives and understandings of place, history
and society. Such questions become a means to explore the relationships of
museums not only to multiple histories but also to the contemporary issues
through which different groups in postcolonial societies engage each other.
PROGRAM (as at 28 May, 1999)
MONDAY, 12 JULY 1999
NATIONAL MUSEUMS IN A POST-COLONIAL WORLD
8.30 Registration
9.30 Indigenous Welcome
9.45 Ms Dawn Casey, Acting Director, National Museum of Australia
Welcome and Introduction
10.30 Morning Tea
11.00 SESSION ONE
Prof. Graeme Davison, Dept of History, Monash University, Australia
Dr Udo Kusel, Director, National Cultural History Museum, Pretoria, South
Africa
"Negotiating New Histories in a New South Africa"
12.30 Lunch
1.30 SESSION TWO
Dr Annie E. Coombes, Director Graduate Studies, History of Art, Birkbeck
College, University of London, United Kingdom
"Impossible Histories: 'Nation' and Memory in a democratic South Africa"
Dr Steve Prystupa, Museum Assistance Program, Dept. of Canadian Heritage,
Canada.
Dr Hans-Martin Hinz, Head of Department, German Historical Museum, and
Chairperson, ICOM Germany.
"History Museums: Negotiating Histories, German experiences"
3.00 Afternoon Tea
3.30 Dr Peter Stanley, Principal Historian, Australian War Memorial,
Australia.
"Diversity of visitors; diversity of interpretation: the Memorial's
Second World War gallery"
4.15 DISCUSSION SESSION
Ms Jackie Huggins, Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Australia
Ms Kirsty Wehner, National Museum of Australia / New York University
Dr Andrea Witcomb, Lecturer, Research Institute for Cultural Heritage,
Curtin University of Technology, Australia.
5.30 Close
TUESDAY, 13 JULY 1999
PEOPLE AND NATION
9.00 SESSION ONE: EXHIBITING NATIONALITY - MUSEUMS AND NATION
Dr Gaye Sculthorpe, Director, Indigenous Cultures Program, Museum
Victoria, Australia
Prof. Ruth Phillips, Director, Museum of Anthropology, University of
British Columbia, Canada.
10.30 Morning Tea
11.00 SESSION TWO: NEGOTIATING CUSTODIANSHIP
Dr George Macdonald, Chief Executive Officer, Museum Victoria and
Director, Melbourne Museum, Australia
Dr Paul Tapsell, Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Cross-Cultural Research,
Australian National University, Australia.
"TAONGA
MANA
WHENUA
A Maori tribal response to the Museum of New Zealand"
12.30 Lunch
1.30 SESSION THREE: LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL HISTORIES
Ms Anna Malgorzewicz, Immigration Museum, Melbourne.
Ms RookSana Omar, Director, Local History Museums, Durban, South Africa
"Dilemmas and Paradoxes of a Local History Museum in KwaZulu-Natal, South
Africa"
Dr Jock Phillips, General Manager, Heritage, Dept. of Internal Affairs,
New Zealand
"The Politics of Pakeha History in a Bicultural Museum: Te Papa, the
Museum of New Zealand 1993-98"
3.00 Afternoon Tea
3.30 DISCUSSION SESSION: PEOPLE AND NATION
Mr Ian McShane, Senior Curator, Australian Social History, National Museum
of Australia
Mr Djon Mundine, Senior Curator, Gallery of Aboriginal Australia, National
Museum of Australia
Dr Robin Trotter, Australian Key Centre for Media and Cultural Policy,
Griffith University, Australia.
4.30 Close
6.00 PUBLIC LECTURE
Prof. David Lowenthal, University College, London, UK.
"From Cosmopolis to Culture Wars: A National Museums Saga"
8.00 Conference Dinner
WEDNESDAY, 14 JULY 1999
THE 'GLOBAL' AND THE 'LOCAL' - THE PLACE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY IN
NATIONAL MUSEUMS
9.00 SESSION ONE: ARE ALL HISTORIES IN NATIONAL MUSEUMS NATIONAL HISTORIES?
Dr Tim Flannery, Director Elect, South Australian Museum, Australia
Prof. John MacKenzie, Professor of Imperial History, Lancaster University,
United Kingdom
10.30 Morning Tea
11.00 SESSION TWO: FROM NATURAL HISTORIES TO ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORIES
Dr Tom Griffiths, Senior Fellow, History Program, Research School of
Social Sciences, Australian National University
"Social History and Deep Time"
Dr Geoff Hicks, Dept. of Environment, New Zealand
12.30 Lunch
1.30 SESSION THREE: MULTIPLE MEANINGS OF LANDSCAPE
Dr Heather Goodall, Associate Professor, Social and Public History,
University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Dr Stephen Dovers, Research Fellow, Centre for Resource and Environmental
Studies, Australian National University, Australia.
"Still Settling Australia, muddling through the environment, and museums"
Ms Jay Arthur, People and the Environment, National Museum of Australia.
"The Lexicon of Landscapes"
3.00 Afternoon Tea
3.30 DISCUSSION SESSION: THE PLACE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY IN NATIONAL
MUSEUMS
Dr Mike Smith, Senior Curator, People and the Environment, National Museum
of Australia
Dr Libby Robin, Curator, People and the Environment, National Museum of
Australia
4.30 CLOSING REMARKS
Professor Geoffrey Bolton
5.00 Close
Kirsten Wehner
The Centre for Cross-Cultural Research
The Australian National University
Telephone: +61 2 6249 4929
Facsimile: +61 2 6249 2438
Email: [log in to unmask]
The Centre for Cross-Cultural Research
Web site: www.anu.edu.au/culture
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